Personal dilemma of sustainability

The challenge of sustainability. An old fuel cap with a sticker expressing a strong environmental stance.

As I thought ahead re content for my blogs ( yes! ... there is a small, if not minuscule, amount of planning that goes into doing this - or so I like to believe) I planned to spend some time highlighting the current trends in management and leadership; but also talk a little more about sustainability and the circular economy now that the European Commission has nailed its colours firmly to the mast of reuse.

Now, before you pigeon-hole me as a hand-knitted wooly jumper wearing, open-toe sandal shod, fully paid up member of the North London liberal elite shoving a zero carbon future down everyones throat. For the avoidance of doubt, I absolutely reserve the right to drive cars because I like the sound they make, replace my gas boiler with another one and fly around the world on a whim, guilt free. But ....whilst also trying to do my bit (like everyone else). 

How can this work?

Having waved goodbye to my full-time executive lifestyle of endless flights, hotels and hire-cars, I can confirm that my own personal earth overshoot day* is significantly improved compared with the (appalling) overall global average of 1st August - as it was in 2024. So I am not all bad in this respect.

In a vain effort to remove any lingering guilt for any less-than-sustainable residues of our own life habits we all begin to work out how we might change those habits. Here we all hit a personal conflict between living sustainably and clinging to lifestyle habits that we selfishly enjoy (eating meat, travelling, foreign holidays, being warm, consuming throw-away fashion .... to name a few). You might, by now, have worked out that it is indeed the richer, developed world that, on the whole, consumes the resources and that earth overshoot day has slowly moved earlier and earlier during each year since the early seventies when we "broke-even" at the end of the year.

So here's the rub ...... How do we all individually and together reconcile the obvious need to live within our means (from the context of consuming the earths resources), whilst still justifying to ourselves our own flagrant over-consumption. To what extent will we as individuals, and we as a society, make and accept change. Will we tolerate it? Can we afford it? Can we afford not to change? Will the efforts of one country alone make any difference to a global problem?

The point is this. We all find ourselves on a practical spectrum of believers or deniers in relation to the need for change. There's a great deal of noise, and many well meaning (and often effective) initiatives and actions already in progress. But, we all have to ask ourselves where we sit on this spectrum and if we are in the right position - and if not what are we willing to do about it. and if not now... then when?

Start now. Why not work out your own personal Earth Overshoot Day.

Visit https://www.footprintcalculator.org/home/en

Just maybe... it might help in tackling your personal dilemma of sustainability.

*Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. In 2024, Earth Overshoot Day landed on August 1st. We maintain this deficit by liquidating stocks of ecological resources and accumulating waste, primarily carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Earth Overshoot Day is hosted and calculated by Global Footprint Network,